Democratic School Turnarounds: Pursuing Equity and Learning from Evidence

This policy brief explores the democratic tensions inherent in the federal Student Improvement Grant (SIG) policy's market-based school reforms. It offers recommendations that re-center the purposes of public education for low-income students, students of color, and local communities in developing more equitable, democratic school turnarounds. The accompanying legal brief offers legislative language that would translate those recommendations into law. Below, please find the policy brief, a response by the brief's authors to Education Secretary Arne Duncan's rejection of the report's conclusions, and the legal brief.